- Study suggests people who eat chocolate at least once a week have their memory and abstract thinking improved
- Research said chocolates improves visual-spatial memory, working memory, scanning and tracking
- It also improves abstract reasoning and the mini-mental state examination that are all useful in everyday life
NEW YORK, USA – There’s another reason for chocolate lovers to grab those chocolate bars as a recent study says there is a proven link between moderate chocolate consumption and improved cognitive performance.
According to a new research published in the journal Appetite, people who munched on chocolate at least once a week have their memory and abstract thinking improved.
Merrill Elias, a psychologist who in the 1970s began studying the cognitive abilities of more than 1,000 people in the state of New York, said that there is a link between blood pressure and cognitive performance.
An article by Evening Standard published on March 8 said that Elias continued to observe and record his findings for decades and eventually expanding the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS) on cardiovascular risk factors.
The research was done in “waves” which is done every five years. During the seventh “wave”, the study expanded to include the dietary habits of its participants and it was revealed that there is an interesting pattern.
Photo Credit: You Wall
“We found that people who eat chocolate at least once a week tend to perform better cognitively,” says Elias.
“It’s significant – it touches a number of cognitive domains,” Elias added.
The researcher said that the “significant positive associations” was found between chocolate consumption and cognitive performance of the participants. It was observed that cognitive performance remained constant even after adjusting variables such as age, cardiovascular risks and dietary habits.
Roberto A. Ferdman mentioned in his article for Independent published on March 8 that further analysis of the data revealed that the effect also includes “visual-spatial memory, working memory, scanning and tracking, abstract reasoning and the mini-mental state examination.”
The researcher explained that these functions can be use in everyday tasks and can make activities of daily living more easily.
“Our study definitely indicates that the direction is not that cognitive ability affects chocolate consumption, but that chocolate consumption affects cognitive ability,” Elias said.
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